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Author Notes:This recipe is inspired by a great soda company from Seattle called Dry Soda. They make not overly sweet sodas with interesting flavors like lavender, juniper, and rhubarb. I decided to see how celery soda might work, and was pleasantly surprised by the result. I've added a bit of lemon, black pepper, and cardamon to enhance and complement the fresh, herbaceous flavor of the celery. This is a grown-up soda that would be perfectly refreshing on a sultry summer day. —hardlikearmour

Food52 Review: Hardlikearmour has created a very cool way to use celery. This is different than every other soda. It's not overly sweet, rather it's a little spicy with a strong undercurrent of celery. It packs jsut the right amount of spice to be interesting, but still refreshing and light. I liked mine in a dilution of 6:1, but feel free to play with it to find what you like the best. —Stephanie Bourgeois

Clean then thinly slice the celery. It should measure about 3 cups when firmly packed into a liquid measuring cup. Set aside.

Remove the zest in strips from half of the lemon. Lightly crush the pepper corns and cardamom pods. Set aside.

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Once it reaches a boil, add the sliced celery and return it to a boil for about 1 minute. Stir once or twice in the process. Remove from the heat.

Add the lemon zest, pepper, and cardamom to the celery mixture. Stir to combine, then cover the pan and allow to cool to room temperature.

Strain the celery syrup through a fine mesh strainer into a jar or other suitable storage container. Press the celery to extract as much syrup as possible. Feel free to nibble on some of the candied celery - it's surprisingly tasty! (and if you think of any good uses for it, pass them on! I send most of it to the compost heap.)

Juice the lemon, and add 3 tablespoons of the juice to the syrup. Stir to combine. Store covered in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Mix syrup with seltzer water. A 1 to 4 dilution is a good starting point; adjust to your taste. Serve over ice with a tender inner celery stalk as garnish if desired.

Has anyone tried tying up the spices in a cheesecloth bag? That method would make them much easier to remove, so we don’t crunch down on a peppercorn or cardamom seed while munching on the celery. Quite unpleasant!

Now, for something that is very pleasant, steep your iced tea over the leftover celery! I make iced tea by steeping tea bags in hot water, then diluting that tea concentrate with water (adding sweetener and/or other flavorings as desired). I was making some tea concentrate while the celery solids were draining, so I had the idea to pour the hot concentrate over the solids. Left that for a while, then poured off some into my glass, added some water, and my eyes lit up! Yum! I’ll do that again!

This was amazing! I'll definitely be making again.I added apple cider vinegar to the leftover celery to make an excellent relish. Next time I will remove the peppercorns first, as the relish became too spicy after a few days in the fridge.

I made this soda yesterday. Love it! I used the spiced candied celery to top a salad made with mozerella, cherry tomato, and fresh basil, then drizzled the leftover lemon juice on top. No additional dressing necessary.

I just found this... would love to have a class of rIght nOw. Think I'll surprise my hubby w/it this weekend :) He's not mUch on experimenting but I'll try almost anything once... providing it's not meat :P

Unbelievable! I just read about celery soda in GUILT by John Lescroart. Sounded good, but never having tried it I had no idea what it tastes like. I googled and Alton Brown has a recipe but its made from celery seeds, and I didn't think that sounded very FRESH. Within 24 hours, I find your tantalizing recipe. Thank you so much!!!!! Fresh celery and pepper, !!!!

Funny! I haven't read that book, and probably should've researched celery soda, but didn't. I'm glad I went with celery stalks instead of seeds. It has plenty of celery flavor without being overpowering IMO.